Moving Forward

I've been Debbie Downer lately, I know. CIO has been hard, but we're finally on the tail end. Because of that, I've gotten three good nights of sleep...if this keeps up it will be worth the anguish.

Declan is coming out of his first sickness and has added on a set of new skills. As you can see, he's becoming proficient at sitting up without assistance. He's been working on this for awhile. He's got the best abs on a baby I've ever seen because he's been doing a baby crunch passionately for the past few weeks. Does that comment make me sound like I'm a step away from entering him into a baby boy pageant? They do exist, I know because my boyfriend Justin Timberlake was in one as a boy. The crunches, I think, are a boy thing. My mom doesn't remember us doing it, but several boy mommies say this is pretty normal.

Anyway, in addition to sitting up pretty well, Declan has become much more aware of his surroundings. He watches us eat and is fascinated by my coffee mug. He's also discovered Scooter and, unfortunately, Scooter has realized this so he now tries to lick Declan all the time. Especially after mealtime. It's okay for Scooter to clean the floor around the baby, but I'd rather use a washcloth for his face, you know?

Declan is trying new foods too. He's now had rice and oatmeal cereal (he likes oatmeal better), applesauce, and avocados. It really is true that you can't give a baby sweet food first, the first night of avocado, Declan loved it...until he gagged because he wasn't swallowing, just storing it in his cheeks like a chipmunk. Last night though, Grandma Lauri fed him avocado and cereal at the same time, and Declan, being advanced as he is, was not having the avocado. It's like when you're on a diet and you get used to the sugar free ice cream and start thinking it's good...until you taste the sweet nectar of the real thing and you fall off the wagon.

I'm trying to make all of his baby food myself. I think jarred food is nasty, so I don't want to feed it to him. So far, it's been easy. I've got a bunch of blended nectarine ready for next week, which I think will be a hit. After that, we're going for sweet potato and acorn squash. Wish us luck!

There is one more thing. It's not a polite thing to talk about, but when you have a baby it just becomes more important. Like important enough to post on the Internet. Yes, I'm talking about poop. Stop now if you have no interest. I wouldn't if I didn't have a baby. Poop didn't used to be a common topic of conversation, now it's like talking about shoes or TV, and just as addictive.

Anyhoo, Declan's poop has passed a major milestone. It was just as surprising as seeing him roll over for the first time. And I'm just as proud. Declan is now creating real, round, solid poop. At first I thought it was a part of his anatomy (you know what I'm talking about) but after a solid minute of trying to figure out how it got all the way back there (I've lost a few IQ points), I realized what it was. I promptly called Rich up to look at it and show him how it rolled around. (Seriously, parenting does change you) Even as I'm writing this, I can't believe I'm posting this...but it's the big story of the week so I can't resist.